{% include "includes/auth/janrain/signIn_traditional.html" with message='It looks like you are already verified. If you still have trouble signing in, you probably need a new confirmation link email.' %}

The joke Gilbert Gottfried told me just now when I talked to him on the phone

Whether or not you’re a fan, you probably know of Gilbert Gottfried, unless you’re one of those smug people who reads a post like this just to be able to say “You’re wrong, dumb pop culture lady! I’ve NEVER heard of that person! I don’t have time for such things!” to which I say, please find another hobby.

So assuming you’re familiar with the uniquely voiced comedian, known for his standup, voicing a scheming cartoon bird in “Aladdin,” a wickedly dirty joke in “The Aristocrats” and formerly the voice of the Aflac duck, you’ll be interested in knowing that he’s coming to the Palm Beach Improv Aug. 30-Sept. 1. I spent 20 minutes on the phone with him just now, during which I had to excuse myself twice so I could compose myself and stop laughing. It’s not just what he says but how he says it. Which is nasally and halting and just hi-larious.

I don’t want to give all my goodies away before the story runs but I will share with you a joke that he told me at the end of the conversation. We had been talking about what people take offense to and I mentioned that I was black and that my husband is Jewish. So Gottfried told me a joke “that covers both of you.” He says it’s not his, and he can’t remember whose it is, but he tells it well, so to me, this is Gilbert Gottfried’s joke:

“This is from one of the comedians from back in the time of Ed Sullivan. Sammy Davis, Jr. gets on a bus in the South. The bus driver says ‘move to the back of the bus.’ Sammy Davis Jr. says ‘But I’m Jewish.’ So the bus driver says ‘Oh, that’s different! Get off.”